A while back, news of a mostly white, mostly male cast for JJ Abrams’ Star Wars drew criticism from us and many others—but this week, there’s reason to celebrate. That’s because the movie announced two new stars: Lupita Nyong’o, who recently won an Academy Award for her performance in 12 Years a Slave, and Gwendoline Christie, well-known to regular readers of this blog as Brienne of Tarth on Game of Thrones.

The Christie casting is exciting because Brienne is one of the most interesting characters on Game of Thrones, and anyone who’s seen Brienne’s swordplay on that show must surely be dreaming of what she’d do with a lightsaber in her hands in the Star Wars universe. Twitter, as usual, is way ahead of us on this.

But the Lupita Nyong’o news is doubly exciting. After her Oscar win, the question on everyone’s mind was whether she’d find a follow-up worthy to her brilliant work in 12 Years a Slave—and it was hardly a foregone conclusion that she would. Reflecting bias in the entertainment industry, the range of roles available to women, and women of color in particular, is sadly limited, and I feared that the same Hollywood that rewarded her for a portrayal of suffering would unfairly deny her mainstream success.

Well, it appears that those fears were unfounded. The Star Wars casting news comes at a great time in the career of Nyong’o. With an award-winning prestige pic to her name, and a major blockbuster coming up, this news practically guarantees that she’ll be a major star in the years to come. I think we can all agree that she deserves it.